Warriors drop to 4-5 with loss to Houston
Utah outplayed the Sabercats, who entered the match with MLR’s best mark of seven wins against just a single loss, for much of the match, but a positive final result proved elusive.
By Brandon Gurney
HERRIMAN — Moral victories are tough to take at this stage of the Major League Rugby season, and Utah Warriors coach certainly wasn’t accepting any after his team finished out on the losing end of a tough 29-24 loss to the Houston Sabercats on Saturday.
Utah outplayed the Sabercats, who entered the match with MLR’s best mark of seven wins against just a single loss, for much of the match, but a positive final result proved elusive.
“We were confident that we could beat these guys,” Cooper said. “...Houston is a good side, there’s no question about that, but there’s no reason we couldn’t have won the game today…We didn’t come to compete against a good side, we came in to beat a good side.”
There were several critical moments Utah was unable to capitalize on, but perhaps the most notable came in the game’s 61st minute.
With the home crowd proving loud and raucous after Utah pulled to within 22-17 after a try from Matt Jensen, Houston snatched the momentum right back, intercepting an ill-timed off-load off of a ruck situation for a long, uncontested run-out and subsequent try. Throw in the fact that Houston scored the try to go up 29-17 down two players who were sitting out with yellow cards, and the error gets compounded considerably.
“We made too many mistakes at crucial teams…way too many penalties and errors,” Cooper said.
Read the full recap at WarriorsRugby.com.
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